Ukraine war: Freedom comes at a price as Russia switches from occupier to attacker of Kherson

Published

3 years ago

December 13, 2022

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The mother wept with relief as she cradled her newborn baby at the only maternity hospital still working in the Ukrainian city of Kherson.

Yulia Khomchyk, 37, discovered she was pregnant after Russian forces had seized the regional capital during the first days of the full-scale invasion in February.

But almost nine months later, a major Ukrainian counter-offensive managed to liberate the city in one of the most significant victories of the war so far – and just in time for the birth.

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“She is clearly Ukrainian, clearly born without all this occupation,” Yulia said, nursing her tiny girl called Maldina as she sat on a hospital bed next to a radiator to keep them warm.

“I am so glad that she is clearly Ukrainian. I am so glad, so glad.”

Kherson’s renewed freedom has brought a new reality, though, as Russian troops switch from being occupiers to attackers, launching deadly rocket and mortar strikes daily.

The bombardments have left more than 40 civilians, including at least one child, dead and many more injured. At least three people were killed on Monday in the latest barrage.

Adding to the misery, the city is suffering from power outages, a lack of running water and many residents are reliant upon food handouts to survive.

It is a huge challenge for Halyna Luhova, the de-facto mayor, but she said the city would endure.

“The situation is pretty difficult,” she told Sky News in an interview on Saturday.

“They shell us daily… innocent civilians die… but even if we will be hungry, freezing, without electricity – we will be without Russians.”

The mayor – known as the head of the Kherson city military administration – took Sky News to visit a number of aid points where basic food supplies and water are being given to people.

The majority of those queuing up for support looked to be pensioners but there was the odd family with young children.

Dmytro Hubarev, 44, said life was hard as he received a loaf of bread, a can of beans and a tin of ham. “We were waiting for heat and power,” he said. “Now we are under shelling.”

Some residents approached the mayor with particular problems, including one woman who complained that she had pain in one of her eyes.

The mayor assured her: “We will be giving people a bag with necessary medicine. You will be receiving humanitarian aid with this bag with all the necessary [supplies].”

The woman, Natalia Skyba, 53, did not seem satisfied.

Asked by Sky News if she thought life was better or worse now Russia’s occupation had ended, she replied: “Worse. Worse. They are giving us aid but not for everyone.”

Yet life in this city while it was under Russian control was a different kind of hell.

People, who opposed the occupation, lived under fear of arrest, torture and even death if they stepped out of line or attempted to defy Kremlin plans to make Kherson part of Russia.

It is not an existence most want to return – though deciding which is the worst of two evils is becoming harder as the Russian shelling intensifies.

Leonid Borovskyi, 60, surveyed a huge hold in the wall of his next-door neighbour’s flat on the seventh floor of an apartment block in a residential area in the city.

It was caused by a Russian rocket that slammed into the building the previous week.

Asked whether enduring Russian attacks was a price worth paying for liberation, he paused and thought deeply before answering.

“From the one side – yes. From the other side – no,” he said.

“Freedom comes at a high price.”

More than 200,000 residents have left the city since Russia’s occupation began – most before the liberation – leaving just under 80,000 still in their homes.

Because of the danger of incoming rounds, the Ukrainian government is encouraging more people to leave until it is safer.

An evacuation train departs each afternoon with new faces on board.

Sat at a window seat with a table, Viktoria Tupikonenko, 34, described how her whole family had celebrated the liberation of Kherson.

She said she could not believe one month later she would be forced to flee with her five-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. Her husband stayed behind with his parents.

“I can’t believe I am just leaving everything – my native land, my native home,” Viktoria said, tears streaking down her face.

“I am leaving my husband but I must go. We don’t know for how long and I don’t know if I will come back, or if our house will survive, or if I even see my husband again.”

But she is in no doubt that this pain is a price worth paying for her country to be free.

“Freedom yes! We need to hold on.”

World

Why hastily declared ceasefires tend to be fragile

Published

1 day ago

June 24, 2025

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Why hastily declared ceasefires tend to be fragile

Ceasefires that are suddenly declared tend to be pretty fragile.

Stable ceasefires usually require a lot of preparation so that everyone on both sides knows what is supposed to happen, and – more importantly – when.

And they normally agree on how it will be monitored so one side cannot seize a quick advantage by breaking it suddenly.

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Without such preparations, and sometimes even with them, ceasefires will tend to be breached – perhaps by accident, perhaps because one side does not exercise full control over its own forces, perhaps as a result of false alarms, or even because a third party – a guerrilla group or a militia, say – choose that moment to launch an attack of their own.

The important question is whether a ceasefire breach is just random and unfortunate, or else deliberate and systemic – where someone is actively trying to break it.

Either way, ceasefires have to be politically reinforced all the time if they are to hold.

All sides may need to rededicate themselves to it at regular intervals, mainly because, as genuine enemies, they won’t trust each other and will remain naturally suspicious at every twitch and utterance from the other side.

This is where an external power like the United States plays a critical part.

If enemies like Israel and Iran naturally distrust each other and need little incentive to “hit back” in some way at every provocation, it will take US pressure to make them abide by a ceasefire that may be breaking down.

Appeals to good nature are hardly relevant in this respect. An external arbiter has to make the continuance of a ceasefire a matter of hard national interest to both sides.

And that often requires as much bullying as persuasion. It may be true that “blessed are the peacemakers”.

World

Five key takeaways from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s interview with Sky News

Published

1 day ago

June 24, 2025

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Five key takeaways from Volodymyr Zelenskyy's interview with Sky News

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has given a wide-ranging interview to Sky News in which he was asked about the prospect of Russia attacking NATO, whether he would cede land as part of a peace deal and how to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

The Ukrainian president spoke to chief presenter Mark Austin.

Here are the five key takeaways from their discussion.

NATO ‘at risk of attack’

Mr Zelenskyy said plans for NATO members to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 are “very slow” and warned Russia could attack a NATO country within five years to test the alliance.

“We believe that, starting from 2030, Putin can have significantly greater capabilities,” he said. “Today, Ukraine is holding him up, he has no time to drill the army.”

But while Mr Zelenskyy conceded his ambition to join NATO “isn’t possible now”, he asserted long term “NATO needs Ukrainians”.

US support ‘may be reduced’

Asked about his views on the Israel-Iran conflict, and the impact of a wider Middle East war on Ukraine, Mr Zelenskyy accepted the “political focus is changing”.

“This means that aid from partners, above all from the United States, may be reduced,” he said.

“He [Putin] will increase strikes against us to use this opportunity, to use the fact that America’s focus is changing over to the Middle East.”

On the subject of Mr Putin’s close relationship with Iran, which has supplied Russia with attack drones, Mr Zelenskyy said: “The Russians will feel the advantage on the battlefield and it will be difficult for us.”

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Trump and Putin ‘will never be friends’

Mr Zelenskyy was sceptical about Mr Putin’s relationship with Donald Trump.

“I truly don’t know what relationship Trump has with Putin… but I am confident that President Trump understands that Ukrainians are allies to America, and the real existential enemy of America is Russia.

“They may be short-term partners, but they will never be friends.”

On his relationship with Mr Trump, Mr Zelenskyy was asked about whether he felt bullied by the US president during their spat in the Oval Office.

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“I believe I conducted myself honestly. I really wanted America to be a strong partner… and to be honest, I was counting on that,” he said.

In a sign of potential frustration, the Ukrainian president added: “Indeed, there were things that don’t bring us closer to ending the war. There were some media… standing around us… talking about some small things like my suit. It’s not the main thing.”

Putin and peace talks

Mr Zelenskyy was clear he supported both a ceasefire and peace talks, adding that he would enter negotiations to understand “if real compromises are possible and if there is a real way to end the war”.

But he avoided directly saying whether he would be willing to surrender four annexed regions of Ukraine, as part of any peace deal.

“I don’t believe that he [Putin] is interested in these four regions. He wants to occupy Ukraine. Putin wants more,” he said.

“Putin is counting on a slow occupation of Ukraine, the reduction in European support and America standing back from this war completely… plus the removal of sanctions.

“But I think the strategy should be as follows: Pressure on Putin with political sanctions, with long-range weapons… to force him to the negotiating table.”

Russia ‘using UK tech for missiles’

On Monday, Mr Zelenskyy met Sir Keir Starmer and agreed to share battlefield technology, boosting Ukraine’s drone production, which Mr Zelenskyy described as a “strong step forward”.

But he also spoke about the failure to limit Russia’s access to crucial technology being used in military hardware.

He said “components for missiles and drones” from countries “including the UK” were being used by Russian companies who were not subject to sanctions.

“It is vitally important for us, and we’re handing these lists [of Russian companies] over to our partners and asking them to apply sanctions. Otherwise, the Russians will have missiles,” he added.

World

At least 25 people killed after Israeli forces open fire near aid trucks in Gaza, witnesses say

Published

1 day ago

June 24, 2025

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At least 25 people killed after Israeli forces open fire near aid trucks in Gaza, witnesses say

At least 25 people have been killed after Israeli forces opened fire towards people waiting for aid trucks in Gaza, according to witnesses and hospitals.

The Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp, which received the victims, said the Palestinians were waiting for the trucks on a road south of Wadi Gaza.

Witnesses told the Associated Press (AP) news agency Israeli forces opened fire as people were advancing to be close to the approaching trucks.

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The Awda hospital said another 146 Palestinians were wounded. Among them were 62 in a critical condition, who were transferred to other hospitals in central Gaza, it added.

In the central town of Deir al-Balah, the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital said it received the bodies of six people who were killed in the same incident.

“It was a massacre,” one witness, Ahmed Halawa, said.

He said tanks and drones fired at people, “even as we were fleeing – many people were either martyred or wounded”.

Another witness, Hossam Abu Shahada, said drones were flying over the area, watching the crowds. Then there was gunfire from tanks and drones, leaving a “chaotic and bloody” scene as people attempted to escape.

He said he saw at least three people lying on the ground motionless and many others wounded as he fled.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reports.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, described the aid delivery mechanism in Gaza as “an abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people”.

He added: “It is a death trap, costing more lives than it saves.”

A spokesperson for the UN’s Human Rights Office said: “The weaponisation of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime and, under certain circumstances, may constitute elements of other crimes under international law.”

Around 56,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. The ministry says more than half of the dead were women and children, but does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count.

The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed across the border and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 251 hostages. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefire agreements.